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- Thread starter BigWoof31
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South Africa extending lockdown to 1 May.
- Infection growth rate 9 days ago was +43%/day
- Infection growth rate after 9 days of lockdown is +4%/day.
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shetuck
What do you need water for, Sunshine?
Yes. It's true. Everyone has had it on their phones since basically February.
It comes on an APP that you download. You can also get it through a common payment APP called Alipay, or a messaging APP called Wechat, both of which everybody has on their phones. Then it checks to see where you've been (I'm guessing based on GPS info and phone company info and car / train / taxi / bus details when you travel). These APPs, when you download them and register ask for your personal information and ID and whatnot, so I'm sure there are back doors built it for the government to keep track of people and to make sure people are where they're supposed to be... and this isn't just during corona, it's always been this way that the government keeps track of everybody, all the time, everywhere.
If you have young children or family who don't have phones you can set your account up to include their names so they can also move around during the outbreak. They are color-coded. Green means you can move around the area where you are living (everybody has, as a rule in China always, to register their "home town" where they are resident), yellow means that maybe you haven't finished your 14-day quarantine or that you traveled outside your home area, and red means that you've traveled to an affected area (Hubei or an another country which has experienced an outbreak) or that you've come into contact with a confirmed case.
It's "real time". That means that each time you go somewhere they ask you for it and you have to run the check. Just cuz you're green right now doesn't mean you'll stay green indefinitely. I know people who had green codes that suddenly changed to red when it was discovered that they'd possibly come into contact (maybe on a train or in a restaurant, etc.) with a confirmed case after contact tracing. So, basically, it constantly updates. If you try and get through a checkpoint by showing them a picture of your QR code (which maybe you took yesterday), they'll ask you to go to the APP and update it and show them the updated one.
I think it's great if it helps contain and stabilize things and helps to get thing back up and running. I'm sure there are libertarian arguments against it. But, like I said, for me it's been really good because it's allowed me to move around. Hasn't hampered my movement, though, as a foreigner, I tend to try and keep a low profile during this outbreak. Other foreigners... not so much. They seem bound and determined to show everybody that they "ain't skerd" and refuse to let the virus bully them into giving up their "freedoms". For sure there are folks on this board who would pull out their shotguns if anybody told them that they had to comply with this requirement. To each his own...
This is just my experience. I'm sure if you look around on the net you'll be able to find anecdotal stories which paint a different picture from what my experience.
For me it's clear what China is and what to expect when living / working here. I think some folks get fooled by the "capitalist" trappings and want to believe or expect that they're living in a place like London or New York or Paris. It's easy to forget, lights and glitter and advanced tech and all, this is still, in many ways, Mao's communist China and every foreigner should remind themselves of that all the time. The fact that you see nice cars on the streets, or people wearing the latest fashions or enjoying pop / rap / hip-hop music, and getting tatoos doesn't change the underlying fact.
Here's what the Shanghai one (where I am) looks like:
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I couldn't possibly agree more. I see these fucktards with their "We n33dz tirm limitz!!11!!" memes, and I always reply "No you don't, just don't vote the fuckers back in." Pretty simple concept actually...
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sparcboxbuck
What happened to my ¤cash?
Yes. It's true. Everyone has had it on their phones since basically February.
It comes on an APP that you download. You can also get it through a common payment APP called Alipay, or a messaging APP called Wechat, both of which everybody has on their phones. Then it checks to see where you've been (I'm guessing based on GPS info and phone company info and car / train / taxi / bus details when you travel). These APPs, when you download them and register ask for your personal information and ID and whatnot, so I'm sure there are back doors built it for the government to keep track of people and to make sure people are where they're supposed to be... and this isn't just during corona, it's always been this way that the government keeps track of everybody, all the time, everywhere.
If you have young children or family who don't have phones you can set your account up to include their names so they can also move around during the outbreak. They are color-coded. Green means you can move around the area where you are living (everybody has, as a rule in China always, to register their "home town" where they are resident), yellow means that maybe you haven't finished your 14-day quarantine or that you traveled outside your home area, and red means that you've traveled to an affected area (Hubei or an another country which has experienced an outbreak) or that you've come into contact with a confirmed case.
It's "real time". That means that each time you go somewhere they ask you for it and you have to run the check. Just cuz you're green right now doesn't mean you'll stay green indefinitely. I know people who had green codes that suddenly changed to red when it was discovered that they'd possibly come into contact (maybe on a train or in a restaurant, etc.) with a confirmed case after contact tracing. So, basically, it constantly updates. If you try and get through a checkpoint by showing them a picture of your QR code (which maybe you took yesterday), they'll ask you to go to the APP and update it and show them the updated one.
I think it's great if it helps contain and stabilize things and helps to get thing back up and running. I'm sure there are libertarian arguments against it. But, like I said, for me it's been really good because it's allowed me to move around. Hasn't hampered my movement, though, as a foreigner, I tend to try and keep a low profile during this outbreak. Other foreigners... not so much. They seem bound and determined to show everybody that they "ain't skerd" and refuse to let the virus bully them into giving up their "freedoms". For sure there are folks on this board who would pull out their shotguns if anybody told them that they had to comply with this requirement. To each his own...
This is just my experience. I'm sure if you look around on the net you'll be able to find anecdotal stories which paint a different picture from what my experience.
For me it's clear what China is and what to expect when living / working here. I think some folks get fooled by the "capitalist" trappings and want to believe or expect that they're living in a place like London or New York or Paris. It's easy to forget, lights and glitter and advanced tech and all, this is still, in many ways, Mao's communist China and every foreigner should remind themselves of that all the time. The fact that you see nice cars on the streets, or people wearing the latest fashions or enjoying pop / rap / hip-hop music, and getting tatoos doesn't change the underlying fact.
Here's what the Shanghai one (where I am) looks like:
Not hyperbole, but I swear to God that when I was younger... really young, I was dragged by my mom to a neighbor’s church to watch a movie about the Book of Revelation / end of times that flashed in my mind while reading what you wrote. In the movie, and it’s a bit foggy... like 45 year kind of fog... people’s ability to move around freely was governed by if they allowed themselves to be tattooed with the mark so they could be tracked.
No judgment, if it makes you comfortable and it doesn’t bother you... more power to you. Regarding “pulling out a shotgun,” I’m not sure that I would go that far, personally. I don’t believe that I’d be capable of killing over that... but if it was being marked (literally or electronically) or face consequences, I’d have to really consider the consequences for refusal.
Yeah, I’m not quite 50 and I was severely scarred by a Christian movie that I saw when I was five years old. I hate the church almost as much as I hate the government.
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Onebuckfan
classof76
My congressman is fine it’s the other 434 that suck. That’s the conventional wisdom of the voters.
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ExpatAkronite
Cascadia Subduction Zone
Doesn't this imply that the majority of voters suck? Just a thought.
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sparcboxbuck
What happened to my ¤cash?
Yes, but considering their options, I think that it’s hard to completely fault the voters. Kinda hard to separate the two in that regard.
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shetuck
What do you need water for, Sunshine?
Clearly there are "issues" on both sides of the political / social spectrum. Thankfully, I'm not at or near either of those edges, personally.
If I was an artist or a writer or somebody whose calling was to call attention to stuff that the powers-that-be would rather not deal with, then I wouldn't be here. There are serious issue with a guy like Ay Wei Wei not being able to express himself. Some of China's greatest creative minds have emigrated to the West, and probably for this exact reason.
To put things in perspective, though, this kind of tracking has been going on here in China since the beginning of time. It's just how stuff is done and people know it and they make decisions accordingly. I also tend to think that people in the West are naive to think that it doesn't happen there to some degree, but that's a hole other hornet's nest. I'm just saying that there isn't, conveniently, just one "bad guy" or "rogue state" in the world at any given time. And "freedoms" and "civil liberties" look different for different people.
Yes... the consequences of refusal are harsh. You get whisked away and that's it.
Having said that, are you ABSOLUTELY certain that you're not already marked?
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